December 5 2013

1:55 PM

Chih-Bing Lam shot 66 at the Hong Kong Open despite carrying his own bag.

By PGATOUR.COM Staff

Chih-Bing Lam carried his own bag en route to shooting 4-under 66 in the first round of the Hong Kong Open. And that wasn't even the crazy part of the story.

Lam, who's tied for third and only two shots behind leader David Higgins, only got into the event after a odd sequence of events. He started the day as an alternate, but got in the field after one player decided to caddie after guessing he wouldn't get in the field, another player was disqualified after his caddie went to the wrong tee and a third player was stopped from playing while in the middle of his swing.

Anthony Kang, who started the day ahead of Lam on the alternate list, decided to caddie for Unho Park, who shot a first-round 71, after guessing a spot in the field wouldn't open up. Finland's Joonas Granberg was disqualified for not making his tee time after his caddie went to the wrong tee.

Jeppe Huldahl was called to the tee after Granberg's disqualification. He was stopped mid-swing and told that he could not play because the first alternate had to be an Asian Tour member since the disqualified player, Granberg, was an Asian Tour member, according to golfcentraldaily.com. The Hong Kong Open is co-sanctioned by the European Tour and Asian Tour.

That's when Lam was called to the tee. He had to run to the tee, and teed off in a sweat before carrying his own bag and shooting 66. "I ran up to the 11th tee. I had an extra club which I took out before I teed off, I had a bunch of old golf balls, no yardage book, no caddie," Lam said. "It worked out well for me."

To make things even more bizarre, Lam played in the same threesome as Park, the player who Kang caddied for. (Click here for a video interview with Lam, Kang and Park.)